WENCHANG, Hainan -- China successfully sent three new satellites into space from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern island province of Hainan on Monday.

The satellites, Shijian-23, Shiyan-22A and Shiyan-22B, were launched aboard a modified version of the Long March-7 carrier rocket at 6:00 am (Beijing Time) and entered their planned orbits successfully.

The Shijian-23 satellite is mainly used for scientific experiments and technical verification, while the Shiyan-22A and Shiyan-22B satellites serve the in-orbit verification tests of new technologies such as space environment monitoring.

The launch was the 459th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.